Captured Islamic State fighters hooked on drugs – report

Starving ISIS defenders who have been captured outside the Syrian city of Raqqa have shown signs of having injected amphetamines to stay alert in what is described as a “brutal fight” for the Syrian city, according to a U.S. military spokesman.

The ISIS terrorists taken into custody recently by the U.S.-backed militants from the Syrian Democratic Forces and questioned by US personnel have been malnourished and emaciated, reportedly with track marks on their arms.

The SDF, a mix of Arab and Kurdish fighters, and advisers who have seen detainees with “pocked needle marks” on their arms have concluded ISIS fighters are using amphetamines to keep themselves awake and boost their “murderous fervor,” said Army Col. Ryan Dillon, a spokesman for Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve.

“Those are the signs we assessed to be amphetamine,” the spokesperson said.

Earlier this week, an SDF spokesperson claimed the SDF has taken 60% of Raqqa city’s territory from the self-proclaimed Islamic State terrorists.

But the US Army’s Col. Dillon said the fight for the town will not get “quicker and easier” as ISIS employs “fiendishly clever” improvised explosive devices.

ISIS troops in Raqqa have been fighting from rooftops, on the ground and in the warren of tunnels they have dug under the city, Dillon said.

Detainees captured by US-backed forces in Syria are sent to local judiciary councils for trial, but American troops may have a chance to interrogate them before they are sent to confinement if the fighters are found on the front lines.

Earlier this week, the SDF repelled a counterattack launched by ISIS from a tunnel complex, he added.